Proverbs 21:3 To do righteousness and justice
Is desired by the Lord more than sacrifice.

Psalms 106:3 How blessed are those who keep justice,
Who practice righteousness at all times!

In our present-day culture of BLM, Antifa, demonstrations, political unrest, voter fraud allegations, and police brutality allegations the topic of Justice comes up a lot. The problem is that justice has been redefined by the liberal socialist movement in our country, and has become the definition permeating much of the present government agenda. The founding Fathers of the United States defined Justice as equal opportunity for all. Socialism has replaced equality with the words egalitarianism and equity.

Italian economist Vilfredo Pareto in 1896 developed the “Pareto Principle.” He wrote it after observing that 80% of Italy’s land was owned by 20% of the people. He researched and studied this all over the world. His premise was that if all the money in the world were gathered up and evenly distributed to all the people in less than ten years, 80% of the money would be in the hands of the same 20% of the people. When I was a dairy farmer we observed that 20% of our cows produced 80% of the milk. As a pastor of a church I have observed that 20% of the people give 80% of the money, and 20% do 80% of the ministry. In basketball 20% of the players score 80% of the points and on it goes, that is pretty much life.

Simple observation concludes that the reason for the 80% – 20% split is because of a difference in diligence, wisdom, responsible behavior, choices, talent, and ability. Those in the lowest of the 80% would say the difference is because of luck, racism, lack of opportunity, and privilege.

Another observable fact is that some of the 20% who acquire wealth begin to use that wealth’s power to oppress and take advantage of the 80%. So governments in an attempt to provide justice for the 80% to prevent them from being taken advantage of enact laws to protect them. Good governments are able to pull that off, but not many stay good for long.

In golf, a system of keeping score has been developed called the “handicap.” Basically the better you play the lower your handicap and the worse you play the higher your handicap. So when four people play a game of golf together on a sunny Saturday afternoon, their handicap is subtracted from their final score at the end of the game, meaning the really bad player has a chance to beat the really good player not because of greater skill but because of his handicap. It is a system designed to keep competition equal so bad players try harder because they now have a chance to win.

In Socialism that is called “egalitarianism” and “equity.”Government is now in charge of creating laws to make it easier for the 80% to make money, own property, get an education, and be happy in life. Historically what always happens is the development of a welfare state where government becomes the oppressor and the middle class disappears, because some of the 20% now move into Government and still control the wealth and now have the power.

The solution? Tomorrow!

Way back in Jerry Falwell’s days and the “Moral Majority,” as the pastor of Jefferson Baptist Church, I had to wrestle with the role we would have in the political arena; what did God expect us to do? The question for me boiled down to this, “How do you most effectively change the morals of a country, the values, the belief system for what is right and what is wrong in a culture? Was working through the government the best way to make the most impact? Was working at changing the government and making it good the right emphasis. Many people pushed me in that direction with great passion.

As I wrestled with this I was greatly influenced by Francis Schaffer’s book, “How Then Should We Live”, and all the books written by Chuck Colson, especially “Against the Night, ” and “Kingdoms in Conflict”. As a result of those books and others, I wrote a “Position Paper, ” on what I believed was my personal responsibility outside my role as a pastor and what I should do as the Pastor of JBC and what should our church do. Here is the short version of that paper.

1. The church’s responsibility, it’s job description given to them by Jesus is to “Make Disciples.”

2. Any other emphasis will rob the church of it’s effectiveness at doing the “Great Commission.”

3. A disciple believes in Jesus, loves Jesus, follows Jesus, obeys Jesus. A disciple reads, studies, memorize’s, and meditates on the Bible, God’s Word daily. A true disciple of Jesus spends time with Him every day in prayer agonizing over the world around them. A disciple of Jesus is a leader, an influencer of people, he is salt and he is light. A disciple sees injustice and wrong around him in his world and he fixes it, he does that as and because he is a disciple of Jesus, that is what they do.

4. The core problem in our country isn’t that the government is bad, the key problem is that there are not enough true disciples of Jesus making the government and the culture good.

5. The problem with any culture, country, goverment is that those being led by Satan and empowered by Satan are more in number and stronger than those who are being led and empowered by God.

6. Whose fault is that? The church’s, the church has one job given to them by God, “Make Disciples, ” and they have done a hundred other things except the one thing they were given to do.

Sarah was born in 1975 after the doctors told us that we wouldn’t have any children, and we ended up with eight total. Raising our kids was the center of my life for year’s and then they were all gone and have been now for a number of year’s. Sherri and her husband Thomas and their son Courage live with us so I get to see them every day, and they are perfect in every way. Our daughter Sarah and her family live just 30 minutes drive from us and we see them close to weekly, the same with our daughter Sandee and son Sam, and their families. We do things with them socially on a regular basis. Last Sunday evening we went to Sam’s church in Stayton and listened to him preach, it was awesome. We went up to Fairbanks, Alaska, and spent a week with Shelly, our seventh child, and her awesome family during Christmas, and had fun ice fishing. Then we went to Hawaii and spent a week with Sally, our youngest, and her family and spent some significant time on the beach with them. That was quite the weather change from below zero to 80 degrees.

Tomorrow we are driving to Idaho and are going to spend 5 days with our son Seth, his wife Aimie and their four wonderful kids. Then in a couple of weeks, we are driving in a twelve-passenger van with our daughter Susanna and her husband Kyle and their three kids to Palm Springs and spend a week with them. I am planning on beating Kyle in golf numerous times.

I enjoy many different things like fishing, hunting, working on cars, and riding my bicycle, but nothing comes close to the joy I feel when we are spending time with our kids and grandkids. They are indeed the most significant source of joy in my life, apart from the Lord.

Patty and I are amazingly blessed with eight kids who love Jesus, love each other, and love us. We have a very loving and unified family that genuinely enjoys each other.

Isaiah 64:8 But now, O Lord, You are our Father,
We are the clay, and You our potter;
And all of us are the work of Your hand.

I am restoring a 1969 Mustang coupe with my grandson Isaac. When we get it finished, it will be his car. I enjoy working on the old car very much. It was a rust bucket when we got it, and we are putting a bunch of new sheet metal in it as we cut out the old rusty parts and put in new.

As we work on it I often think of Isaiah 64:8, where God says that we are the work of His hands. I take great pride in taking a piece of rusty old junk and turning it into a car that looks brand new and is worth a lot of money. He is working on me taking an old useless sinner and making me into the image of Jesus Christ, now that is restoration to the max!

The difference between me and an old rusty car is that I am part of the process of God making me new. I have to cooperate with the process. God gives me instructions in the Bible how to cooperate with His restoration project with my life, and as I do that I become clean, powerful, and useable for Him.

Proverbs 18:6-7
A fool’s lips bring strife,
And his mouth calls for blows.
A fool’s mouth is his ruin,
And his lips are the snare of his soul.

I tell a lot of stories. It is part of my teaching method. Our family grew up telling stories; stories about our family, fishing stories, farming stories hunting stories, stories of exploits, stories of failures and dumb moves, sad stories, happy stories. In conversations at work, in the back yard, over the back fence, at family gatherings, in the church foyer we all tell stories.

Some people in the process of telling stories can’t help themselves from telling stories that make themselves look good, tough, smart, successful, intelligent, even spiritual. There is usually an element of exaggeration as they portray themselves as a macho man or women.

The worst at this verbal foolishness from my observation are politicians, professional actors, sports stars, and politicians. Did I say politicians twice, yes I guess I did, and I think I will leave it that way. It is amazing that those that have such a high stature in life are so prone to bragging and attempting to make themselves out to be something they are not.

It is interesting to observe the verbal sparing going on recently between our President, Russia’s Putin, and now Turkey’s president. None of it is what you would call intelligent leadership conversation, it is more like sixth-grade boys verbally competing for tough kid of the class.

A couple of lessons for me as I observe what one conservative commentator called the embarrassing display of world leaders pissing on each other.

Lesson number one is when I tell a story about myself, I need to be sure and make myself out to be ordinary, struggling like everybody else, a guy on a journey trying to figure things out, but a man who loves Jesus.

The second lesson learned is that I need to pray harder for the President of the United States that God would fill him with the knowledge of His will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding.

Proverbs 18:12
Before destruction the heart of man is haughty,
But humility goes before honor.

One of my favorite country songs that Mac Davis, Willie Nelson, and Kenny Rogers sang.

“Oh Lord, it is hard to be humble when you are perfect in every way; I can’t wait to look in the mirror cause I get better looking every day; to know me is to love me, I must be one heck of a man, oh Lord it is hard to be humble, but I am doing the best that I can”

I only sing that song when I am fishing, but never around my wife or my grandkids!

Probably the most difficult of all people to enjoy being around are those who are arrogant, haughty, and obnoxiously prideful. They grate on our nerves, and when they are talking we would like in the worst way to tell them to shut up.

Proverbs 16:5 Everyone who is proud in heart is an abomination to the Lord; Assuredly, he will not be unpunished.

Pride is a subtle thing in us, It sneaks in and influences our behavior, thinking, and speech, and we don’t even realize it. God hates pride in us, and we will lose many blessings from Him because of it.

Pride damages our relationship with people, it damages our relationship with God, and we will be an increasingly lonely person if we don’t conquer this subtle sin in our life.

The key is to set a goal to say thank you to God at least three times every day. In those times say, “Lord, everything I have accomplished is because of You, apart from You I can do nothing.” And along with that goal set one to say thank you to people, how about five different people every day. There is something powerful in giving other people credit, affirmation, praise and appreciation.

Proverbs 17:27-28
He who restrains his words has knowledge, and he who has a cool spirit is a man of understanding. Even a fool, when he keeps silent, is considered wise; when he closes his lips, he is considered prudent.

One time when I was talking to an old veteran pastor who was an amazingly good preacher of the Word, I asked him for some advice on how to become a good preacher. I said to him, “I would be so happy if I could preach half as good as you do, ” that was my attempt at honoring him and staying humble, but I will never forget his response, “unless you want to preach twice as good as I do, you won’t amount to a hill of beans!”

The second thing he said was, “don’t be a jabber box!” I think he could see my look of confusion and he said, ”the more you talk all day long the less passion you will have in your preaching.” He went on to say, “the early church fathers used to say, ‘If you want the oven to stay hot, don’t open the door all the time.’”

It is a balancing act for me, I need to talk to people, to work on growing in my relationship with those that I am called to Pastor, but not to be a jabber box. I need to talk to Patty, she enjoys conversation, but one thing I know is that if I listen attentively she will do most of the talking.

One thing I know is true is that the more I talk, the more apt I am to sin, and a corollary to that is, the more I talk, the less wise I seem to be.

Proverbs 16:7 When a man’s ways are pleasing to the Lord, He makes even his enemies to be at peace with him.

When there is a problem in a marriage, who’s fault is it? When there is disagreement between a parent and their kid, who’s fault is it? When there is a conflict between people at their workplace, whose fault is it? When there is conflict between two neighbors, whose fault is it?

When we were raising our eight kids, and two of them got into a fight about something, and Patty or I intervened, usually the first words out of one or both of their mouths was, “It is his fault.” That statement seemed to justify whatever behavior issues were taking place.

I have done many hours of counseling over the last 40 years with people who are in the midst of a disagreement, and when I ask about the reason for the conflict one or both point to the other person as the reason for the lack of unity in their relationship, “it is their fault.”

In conflicts that I have been involved with as a counselor, neither person asked any of these questions, “what is God’s role in this situation in our relationship?” “Could God make us one, could He fix this conflict?” “What would it take for God to become an active third party in my marriage?” “What would I need to do for God to change my son’s heart?”

Proverbs 16:7 has been my main “go-to” verse for years in any conflict that I have been part of, which prompts me to ask myself the question, “what do I need to do to prompt God to work in my ‘enemies’ heart, ” and then a follow-up question to myself, “what things possibly need to be changed in my heart for God to be pleased with me?”

In summary, God loves peace and unity; He has the power to change any person’s heart and behavior easily; when one person humbly says, “Lord, change me, ” He will, and then He will change the other person as well.

Proverbs 16:7 works incredibly well, but someone has to say, “it is my fault, ” before God gets involved.

Proverbs 15:13 A joyful heart makes a cheerful face,
But when the heart is sad, the spirit is broken.

Proverbs 17:22 A joyful heart is good medicine,
But a broken spirit dries up the bones.

Philippians 4:4 Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice!

I am happy because I choose to be happy. I choose to be happy by thinking of the good things in life, and even on my worst day, there are many.

I am happy because I choose to be happy. I choose to be happy by rejoicing always, even in the worst trials because God loves me, and is infinite in wisdom and knows exactly what I need to experience at any given time in my life so as to grow at maximum speed toward Christ like character and to bear much fruit for Him.

I am happy because I choose to be happy. I choose to be happy by thinking about heaven and imagining all that I will experience there. Heaven is going to be such an amazing place that I can’t come close to imagining now, but I will give it my best shot.

I am happy because I choose to be happy. I choose to be happy because I can choose to be happy, it is within my power that God has given me to choose to rise above the problem and trials of life and be happy.

Am I ever sad? Yes, but not because of my circumstances being bad. I am sad because so many are happy or sad based on the circumstances of their life, they are truly victims. And what is really sad is that many who are sad because of their circumstances are Christians, followers of Jesus, and they have no testimony, no witness for Jesus. Lost people who are headed for hell forever are attracted to people who have hope displayed in their countenance, especially in hard times.

Proverbs 14:12 There is a way which seems right to a man, but its end is the way of death.

I was reading a news commentary and the writer wrote, “Truth is fluid.” That statement is very untrue, but many in today’s culture believe it to be true, which is a perfect illustration of Proverbs 14:12.

At the trial of Jesus by Pontus Pilate he seems frustrated by the fluid truth of his day. John 18:38 Pilate said to Him, “What is truth?”

Truth is absolute with no fluidity whatsoever. God is truth, He communicates truth, He establishes truth, He decides what is true, He enforces truth.

John 14:6 Jesus *said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me.

John 8:32 you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free.”

John 17:17
Sanctify them in the truth; Your word is truth.

Read the Bible everyday, it is the source of truth, it is the Word of God.